The term angel investor originated on Broadway where the wealthy would invest in a production to finance the show until opening night. At that point tickets could be sold to keep the show running. Those wealthy investors were called angels. If you're looking for "pennies from heaven" to get your fast food franchise open, it's a challenge to find your own angel investor. Unfortunately they're not listed in the yellow pages.

Preparation

1. Write the business plan, including industry research, competition, market, customer base, marketing strategies, and funding requirements. Use the information provided by the fast food franchisor but adapt it to your own location and customer base. Extract the most important points into an executive summary of no more than two pages. It's too late to prepare a business plan and executive summary after you've found an interested angel investor you want to pitch.

2. Practice your elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is a 60-second pitch about your project and why someone would be interested. The idea is to intrigue someone enough so they want to learn more or ask to read the executive summary and business plan. Make sure you include the name of the fast food franchise in the pitch.

3. Develop a 20-minute computerized slide presentation from the business plan that outlines the franchisee concept, why it will be successful, why you're qualified to manage the franchise and how the investor's money will be used. Consider bringing some of the fast food with you for attendees to sample.

Search

1. Spread the word. Tell your network that you have an opportunity for a partner. Attend networking events such as the local chamber of commerce mixers. Phrase your elevator speech to approach contacts asking if they know of someone who might be interested, instead of putting them on the spot, by asking them directly if they'd personally like to invest. If your city sponsors a venture capital conference or any type of financing event, attend and talk to the other attendees.

2. Read through old issues of newspapers, either online or at the library, and scan for articles about franchise food operations, angel investors and private or accredited investors. Search for articles about startup restaurants, restaurant openings and new restaurant concepts. Read the articles to see if they mention investors or investment companies by name.

3. Contact any venture capital companies within a one-hour flight time of your city. The VC will most likely not be interested. However, they may know of an angel investor who might be.

4. Contact any angel networks or organizations in your city, as well as any group that might be considered a business incubator. The more people that know you're looking for an investor, the higher the probability that you'll find one.

Tips

Read the Franchisee documents. They may specify that you need a personal net worth to qualify for a franchise.

Only discuss the investment opportunity with accredited investors. An accredited investor is one who meets certain net worth and income levels determined by the Securities Exchange Commission

Warnings

Be leery of hiring someone on a percentage fee to find the angel for you. Some unethical brokers will represent themselves as an investor and then decline to invest but say they know several people who would be interested if you pay them for the introduction.

Do not offer specific ownership shares or a price for share in any documents. This could be construed as offering stock to the general public which is not allowed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About the Author

Katie Jensen's first book was published in 2000. Since then she has written additional books as well as screenplays, website content and e-books. Rosehill holds a Master of Business Administration from Arizona State University. Her articles specialize in business and personal finance. Her passion includes cooking, eating and writing about food.